Spring is in the air

The northern hemisphere has entered meteorological spring and the Die Cut Divas would like to see some signs of the new season in our projects this month.The challenge provided a perfect starting point for a birthday card I needed to make.

A couple of months back I bought a bundle of Lisa Horton products on eBay which included a pretty buttercup set. As they generally start flowering in March I thought that might be a good place to start. I’m still enjoying playing with some dark backgrounds so I added my stencilled, die cut and embossed spray of buttercups to a black card base with a white heat embossed sentiment and a frame drawn with a white paint pen and given some smudgy, chalkboard sort of corners with a white pencil.

I only used two ink colours on the stencilling, one yellow and one green, which sort of made up for the amount of other stuff taking up real estate on my desk! The camera hasn't picked up the shading details of the green leaves very well but it's the best I could manage.

Paper: Bristol board, smooth black

Ink: Adirondack by Ranger (Sunshine Yellow), Memento by Tsukineko (New Sprout)

Other:
Buttercup Bloom bundle (3D folder, outline die, layering stencils — Lisa Horton Crafts)
Sentiment from Enjoy Quotes (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Bright white embossing powder (Wow!)
White Posca paint pen
White pencil
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by! 

Link in the chain - February

I've finally managed to reach a state where I felt I could join in again at Card Chain Challenge — hooray! My card for February has gone to Brenda. Stylistically this is a total contrast to what Brenda tends to make herself but I figured that's part of what CCC is about!

From the options on offer I chose the theme (On the Farm) and the colours (indigo, lime, violet). I did use a die but as it's a plain square I think I'd be pushing it to claim the technique option of dies/fussy cutting!

There was a lot more lime showing on the first version of this but nothing else was quite right so it got framed for a sort of Polaroid effect, selecting the bit of the image I was happiest with. In an attempt to get closer to indigo than anything in my ink stash, I stamped the sentiment with both Blueprint Sketch and Dusty Concord - thank goodness for stamp positioners, eh? For some reason the colour balance went to pot in the photo and in a way that resisted adjustment — the sentiment is a bit darker in real life and the violet is a bit lighter!

I think this cow has probably just spotted something tasty so the sentiment seemed appropriate! 

Stamps:
Cow Selfie and Enjoy Quotes (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress Oxides (Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron)
Tim Holtz Distress (Blueprint Sketch, Dusty Concord)
Brilliance

Other:
Square Nestabilities
Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by. There are a few more days to sign up for the next exchange if you fancy making and receiving a hand made card.

 

Butterfly birthday

I needed a birthday card for a friend and found myself short of ideas so used a challenge to give me a kickstart on it. Unusually for me there’s no stamping here! 

The Die Cut Divas are asking for shades of red and/or pink for the current challenge.

I die cut the butterfly from watercolour paper and used various shades of red and pink paint to colour it, mixing some Gansai Tambi white gold with pink to colour some cells with subtle sparkle. I’ve also used some Stickles dotted around the butterfly for extra glitz and added a sequin and a nail art gem where the two fern stems join. 

The top of the card was inked with Distress Oxide and then I splattered some diluted ink — it left coloured dots on the white portion of the card and lifted colour from the inked portion. The sentiment was die cut from card inked in the same Distress ink and the slender ferns left crisp white. Then of course, as it’s all die cuts, I spent ages shuffling elements around before getting something I was vaguely happy with — why do I find it so much more difficult than composing something with multiple stamps?!

Paper: Bristol board

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Picked Raspberry)

Other:
Mini Detailed Butterfly dies (Tim Holtz/Ranger)
Happy Birthday Poe Script die (Poppystamps)
Fern Valley dies (Arden Creative Studio, Maker Series)
Watercolours (Winsor & Newton)
Gansai Tambi Starry Colours
Corner Chomper
Stickles glitter glue (Frosted Lace)
Sequin
Nail art gem

Deck the halls

A second card for the February Christmas Kickstart challenge where we've been invited to a sing-a-long! I'm combining with Retro Rubber this time who are back after a break while they changed platform. Use stamps older than a year and you can play along, too!

This turned out a bit rustic, a bit vintage but quite festive, I think. Retro Rubber has a tic tac toe challenge at the moment — I chose the middle line of kraft, free choice (I went with fussy cutting), embossing. I think my song for Christmas Kickstart is reasonably obvious!

After fussy cutting the stamped holly, I decided the card needed something a bit extra. Although it's at a different scale I thought the die cut holly sprig worked OK and it had the advantage that the leaves were small enough I could overlap the sprig onto the sentiment panel without obscuring any of the pretty lettering. I hand drew the veins so it was closer to the style of the stamped holly.

I've given the lettering a tiny bit of sparkle by using a Spica glitter pen to trace over the edges of the stamping.

Distress ink in Antique Linen always goes well with kraft and it just softens the edges of the white sentiment panel a bit. 

Stamps:
Noel (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us —  I've had the set at least a decade)
Holly (magazine freebie stamp, I've had it at least five years)

Paper:
Kraft
Bristol board
Black

Ink:
Memento Luxe (Love Letter)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Moonlit berries embossing folder (Couture Creations)
Square Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Copic markers
Red Spica glitter pen
Christmas roses dies (Sue Wilson/Creative Expressions) 

 Thanks for Stopping by!

All together now...

This month Christmas Kickstart is inviting us to a sing-a-long - make a card inspired by a Christmas song or carol. I'd recently found this little sentiment stamp (it's so old I don't remember where it came from; it's grey rubber and I have a very faint bell in my head that says Elzybells but if anyone knows, shout out!). 

The sentiment was really crying out for an image with two or more characters and when I remembered this jolly little crew tucked down the side of the Christmas supplies box they seemed like good candidates.

We recently visited a National Trust property (Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, worth a visit if you're in the area) and they had some lovely cards in the gift shop that had a slightly debossed area for the image. I figured I should be able to do that to add subtle interest to a one layer card. Took me a while to work it out but I got there in the end!

I cut some lightweight chipboard with a rectangle die and used a bit of low tack tape to keep it centred on the card front then turned it over and ran a stylus round the edge. I did it on a blank card base so that if I messed up, I hadn't ruined a carefully coloured image!

Image is coloured with Copics and topped up with just a few pencil details and some copper gel pen for the stars on some of the packages. 

Stamps:
Holly Jolly (Penny Johnson/Stampavie)
Sentiment stamp unknown (possibly very old Elzybells)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers 
Black fineliner
Coloured pencils
Copper gel pen

 

 

My punny Valentine

I wanted to make a Valentine for my DH but nothing was really gelling until I saw the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge this month — Black, Black Heart. When combined with Lost Coast Designs and We Love Stamping who both have the theme of Hearts this happened.

I've had this embossing folder for ages (I had to have it after seeing this card on Jo's blog but have failed to use it until now! Looking at it again reminds me how much I miss the Let’s Squash It! Challenge). The folder gives a fantastically deep impression. I guess black is not traditional but it is dramatic!

The original plan was to print out a quote from Einstein about love and gravity but the printer is playing up and then this pun popped into my head and refused to go away. That meant I spent ages cutting and then sticking on individual letters -- good job it's going to someone special, eh? 

I ran a copper gel pen round the edge of the embossed piece, just for a bit of contrast

Stamps:
Einstein (Carmen's Veranda)

Paper:
Smooth black
Bristol board 

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Typewriter font dies (Tim Holtz/Sizxzix)
Romantic 3D embossing folder (Sizzix)
Copper gel pen
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Coffee companion

Kathy commented on the tea fairy card I made recently asking about the possibility of a coffee fairy. Tee-Hee was keen to prove her credentials as an accommodating sort (but points out she’s actually a pixie). As Kathy’s been doing battle with a nasty lurgy recently, I figured an easy cuppa might be just the job so Tee-Hee got her way and upped the level of caffeination!

Coffee bags are not something I’ve tried but thinking about whether they existed (they do, there’s one in this card in the same way there was a tea bag in the tea card) triggered the memory of little individual “over cup” filters in the first place I ever worked. Those had what was essentially a big round coffee bag in the base of a filter basket that sat on top of a cup — you filled the basket and let the coffee drip through. Totally wasteful plastic-wise but I guess every person got freshly brewed coffee. My 14 year old waitress self didn’t really appreciate the faff though!

The cup is the bottom one from a stacked tower. That meant I couldn’t do this as a genuine one layer card as it’s pretty much impossible to stamp that one cup so I fussy cut and stuck it in place.

I’ll add this to the January Lost Coast Designs challenge as my final entry this month.

Stamps:
TeeHee HLP (Lost Coast Designs)
Coffee and Tea (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)
Tea time (I think that's what it's called)(Crafter's Companion)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Wink of Stella pen
Gift card dies (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Corner Chomper

Winged thoughts

Combining the bubble border with a butterfly image was actually my first idea for January’s “Winged Things” challenge at Lost Coast Designs but I got sidetracked into other projects along the way. I have managed to get the idea out of my head and onto a card before the challenge ends though. 

I’m also playing again at We Love Stamping where this month’s theme is “new”. The very pretty sentiment is new — it’s from another of the Katzelkraft sets I bought recently.

A new to me challenge is Time Out where the current theme is to be inspired by a favourite technique. I heat embossed my bubble border to create little cells for watercolour media — it’s a quick and easy way to contain your colour without having to be too careful so that’s a win in my book! This is also CAS which is one of my favourite ways to make cards so if that’s considered a technique (rather than a style) then I’ll claim that too.

I used a Copic marker to fill in the black at the edge and the butterfly is watercoloured. The wings are bent up a little so it looks like she’s just landed and there’s some gentle sparkle courtesy of Wink of Stella. Having chopped off her antennae when  I fussy cut the butterfly, I drew some new ones with a quick flick of a fineliner.

Stamps:
Bubble border (Lost Coast Designs)
Antique Engravings (Hero Arts, retired)
Enjoy Quotes (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Zig Clean Color markers
Watercolour pencils (Derwent)
Wink of Stella pen (clear)
Black fineliner
Detail embossing powder (clear)

Pretty in (festive) pink

I got an idea into my head for another way to play along with the Christmas Kickstart Dreaming of a Pink Christmas challenge. Several frustrating hours later, the initial idea was a distant memory and the lovely piece of alcohol ink background (with silver mixative) I’d made was die cut into several baubles. Even then, only one of them made it onto the final card. Maybe pink and what was essentially a piece of patterned paper was just toooo far out of my comfort zone!

I wanted a skinny frame and didn’t have anything suitable so I used nesting rectangle dies, found it still wasn’t really skinny enough so trimmed a bit off the outer edge. I found some washi tape that has an interesting “tarnished silver” look to it and used that to cover the frame.

The branch is built up of one small stamp used several times to make a larger bough. I added a few freehand extras as well, just to fill it out a bit. My go-to embellishment of tiny nail art gems make an appearance in two shades of pink and three sizes.

Still not quite convinced I like this but it might grow on me.

Stamps:
Noel (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Christmas Joy (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Pale pink glossy

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide (Picked Raspberry)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Ivy)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Silver leafing pen (Krylon)
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
Vintage Ornament die (Impression Obsession, no longer with us)
Copic Various refills (Fucshia and Sugared Almond Pink)
Silver Mixative (Ranger)
Washi tape

Tea fairy

It’s always nice when the tea fairy calls (i.e. someone else makes you a cuppa and delivers it to your elbow when you’re working). Failing that, just making time to sit for a few minutes with a nice brew can make a difference to your day. 

So, with that and the current Lost Coast Designs challenge (Winged Things) in mind, I made a little presentation card for a tea bag. I’ve had this tea fairy stamp for ages and never got round to using her before. She’s rather sweet even if she does look slightly mischievous! She’s got sparkly pink hair as well as sparkly wings, just because. I fully expected my Wink of Stella pen to have dried up as it must be several years since I used it but it delivered, no problem. 

I cut little tabs inside the card to hold a tea bag in a paper sachet with a die designed to cut them to hold a gift card. My sachet was slightly wider than the usual gift card so I modified by cutting one side, then shifting the die to cut the other.

Sending a special tea bag can be a nice way to say to a friend “I’m thinking of you, make sure you take some time for yourself".

Stamps:
TeeHee HLP (Lost Coast Designs)
Retro Women 2 (Tanda Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Wink of Stella pen
Gift card dies (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Corner Chomper